Before Army, P.O.W. Failed at Coast Guard Training

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and ERIC SCHMITT

June 11, 2014

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl spent four weeks in basic training with the United States Coast Guard in early 2006 before he was given an administrative discharge, military officials said Wednesday. The disclosure raised new questions about whether Sergeant Bergdahl should have been allowed to enlist in the Army two years later, and whether he had to be given a waiver to join either because he had previously washed out of boot camp or because of concerns about his emotional fitness.

A Defense Department official said that the Army knew that Sergeant Bergdahl, at the time of his 2008 enlistment, failed to make it through Coast Guard basic training two years earlier. The official said he did not know whether Sergeant Bergdahl had then been required to obtain a waiver for Army service. He enlisted when the military was desperate for recruits for Iraq and Afghanistan; an estimated one in every five were receiving waivers for previous drug use or because of other conduct, “moral” or medical issues.

Sergeant Bergdahl walked off his base in eastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, setting off a wide search throughout Paktika Province. He was captured by the Taliban and held for nearly five years before being handed over late last month to American commandos in Afghanistan in exchange for the release of five Taliban detainees being held in the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Military officials on Wednesday did not provide any specific reason Sergeant Bergdahl — who was a private first class when he was captured and promoted while in captivity — left Coast Guard boot camp eight years ago. His separation was first reported by The Washington Post, which said that friends of the sergeant believed he had been discharged for psychological reasons.

Chief Warrant Officer Barry Lane, a Coast Guard spokesman in Washington, said Sergeant Bergdahl’s discharge was labeled “uncharacterized,” and as such was neither honorable nor dishonorable. He said that such discharges were typical for enlistees who did not complete boot camp, and that he had no information about any psychological problems Sergeant Bergdahl may have had. Sergeant Bergdahl served in the Coast Guard from Jan. 30, 2006, to Feb. 25, 2006, and was in boot camp in Cape May, N.J.

According to Coast Guard officials, the washout rate for new recruits in boot camp in the year Sergeant Bergdahl enlisted was about 10 percent.

The huge number of waivers granted during the height of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan raised concerns that the Army was inducting too many recruits with criminal histories or behavioral or medical problems that should have disqualified them from service. The number of waivers has fallen since then, as the military has sought to trim its enlisted ranks.

An Army recruiter said Wednesday that failing to complete boot camp after an earlier enlistment could be a disqualifying factor for enlisting a second time, depending on the precise explanation for the previous separation from service that would be identified through a separation code listed on discharge papers. A waiver could be given for some separation codes but not for others, the recruiter said.

Even excluding people who needed a waiver to enlist because they fell into a specific category, the Army was less selective during the time that Sergeant Bergdahl joined than it had been, or than it would be just a few years later, said Phillip Carter, a former Army officer who is now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

“The Army had to recruit an awful lot of people who they wouldn’t have accepted in peacetime,” Mr. Carter said, adding that there was also “pressure on commanders not to kick people out before they deployed. At every step in the process, there was a push to increase size at the expense of quality.”

Someone who had previously washed out of boot camp might not have raised concerns in 2008, he said, but “at the very least today, the recruiter would run it up the flagpole and get his boss’s approval.”

On Wednesday, The Post also reported that Sergeant Bergdahl sent emails in the weeks before his disappearance that alluded to “plans” he was working on, and which stated that a close friend should not be worried if she received a call about him from the Red Cross or the military.

In an email to the daughter of a friend named Kim, Sergeant Bergdahl wrote, “If at any point in time, kim gets a call from red cross, or the mill, no matter when, in a week, month, or years ... Keep her from panic and bad ideas.”

When the daughter subsequently sent an email to Sergeant Bergdahl that said, “Just don’t do anything stupid or pointless,” the newspaper reported, he replied, “You know I plan better than that.”